Got a nice little feature today:
Pepperoni Rolls
Country Club Bakery Fairmont, W.Va.
CHRIS PALLOTTA is not about to divulge the recipe for his bakery’s famous pepperoni rolls. But he did say that “the bread dough is probably the most important part of it.”
Mr. Pallotta, 42, doesn’t run just any bakery. He owns Country Club Bakery, in Fairmont, W.Va., an Italian bakery opened by the man credited with first selling the rolls commercially, Giuseppe Argiro. The snack is the unofficial state food of West Virginia, a yeasted shelf-stable roll that at Country Club Bakery envelops a trio of pencil-size pepperoni sticks.
Country Club sells the baseline standard for a pepperoni roll, said Candace Nelson, the author of “The West Virginia Pepperoni Roll.” You can find pepperoni rolls just about anywhere in the state — bakeries, restaurants, school cafeterias, grocery stores and gas stations — but according to Ms. Nelson, “the pinnacle is the fresh, hot-from-the-bakery pepperoni roll.”
There are those who believe that the roll is best made with stick pepperoni, as it is at Country Club, and others who spread slices through the roll “like you would cards if you were doing a magic trick,” said Ronni Lundy, the author of the Appalachian cookbook “Victuals.” Ground pepperoni has a following, too.
Cheese, while initially controversial, has been embraced by many. But purists still want their rolls the way Country Club makes them: without. Some dip them in marinara sauce, and others slather them with mustard, Ms. Lundy said. “I am absolutely certain that there has to be a secret cult somewhere that puts ranch dressing on it,” she said.
The pepperoni roll wasn’t always so manifold. Mr. Argiro began selling his rolls sometime between 1927 and 1938, Ms. Nelson said, but it is likely that the wives of Italian immigrant coal miners were making them long before they were sold commercially. It was a way to combine the two foods that many miners took down to the shafts, a perfect lunch to eat with one hand in the cramped darkness.
Its portability and long shelf life have made it a popular wedding favor, and road trip and tailgate snack.
Country Club has been allowed to operate as an essential business during the pandemic, and the bakery continues to make as many as 4,200 pepperoni rolls a day. Mr. Pallotta, who bought the shop from the Argiro family in 1998, said supermarket orders have picked up as restaurant demand has collapsed. “Our business is pretty steady,” he said.
At his bakery, the rolls are about the size of a hot dog bun, made of an Italian bread dough. “When you bake it, the grease from the pepperoni infiltrates the whole roll,” he said.
That pepperoni juice is the secret to finding the tastiest roll, Ms. Lundy said, offering the advice she was given at a food conference a few years back: “Pick it up and look at the bottom, and if it’s got red grease on the bottom, that’s a better one. That one’s going to be permeated with the pepperoni flavor.”
— Sara Bonisteel
Pepperoni Rolls
Country Club Bakery Fairmont, W.Va.
CHRIS PALLOTTA is not about to divulge the recipe for his bakery’s famous pepperoni rolls. But he did say that “the bread dough is probably the most important part of it.”
Mr. Pallotta, 42, doesn’t run just any bakery. He owns Country Club Bakery, in Fairmont, W.Va., an Italian bakery opened by the man credited with first selling the rolls commercially, Giuseppe Argiro. The snack is the unofficial state food of West Virginia, a yeasted shelf-stable roll that at Country Club Bakery envelops a trio of pencil-size pepperoni sticks.
Country Club sells the baseline standard for a pepperoni roll, said Candace Nelson, the author of “The West Virginia Pepperoni Roll.” You can find pepperoni rolls just about anywhere in the state — bakeries, restaurants, school cafeterias, grocery stores and gas stations — but according to Ms. Nelson, “the pinnacle is the fresh, hot-from-the-bakery pepperoni roll.”
There are those who believe that the roll is best made with stick pepperoni, as it is at Country Club, and others who spread slices through the roll “like you would cards if you were doing a magic trick,” said Ronni Lundy, the author of the Appalachian cookbook “Victuals.” Ground pepperoni has a following, too.
Cheese, while initially controversial, has been embraced by many. But purists still want their rolls the way Country Club makes them: without. Some dip them in marinara sauce, and others slather them with mustard, Ms. Lundy said. “I am absolutely certain that there has to be a secret cult somewhere that puts ranch dressing on it,” she said.
The pepperoni roll wasn’t always so manifold. Mr. Argiro began selling his rolls sometime between 1927 and 1938, Ms. Nelson said, but it is likely that the wives of Italian immigrant coal miners were making them long before they were sold commercially. It was a way to combine the two foods that many miners took down to the shafts, a perfect lunch to eat with one hand in the cramped darkness.
Its portability and long shelf life have made it a popular wedding favor, and road trip and tailgate snack.
Country Club has been allowed to operate as an essential business during the pandemic, and the bakery continues to make as many as 4,200 pepperoni rolls a day. Mr. Pallotta, who bought the shop from the Argiro family in 1998, said supermarket orders have picked up as restaurant demand has collapsed. “Our business is pretty steady,” he said.
At his bakery, the rolls are about the size of a hot dog bun, made of an Italian bread dough. “When you bake it, the grease from the pepperoni infiltrates the whole roll,” he said.
That pepperoni juice is the secret to finding the tastiest roll, Ms. Lundy said, offering the advice she was given at a food conference a few years back: “Pick it up and look at the bottom, and if it’s got red grease on the bottom, that’s a better one. That one’s going to be permeated with the pepperoni flavor.”
— Sara Bonisteel
